As of Season 2, Hwoarang is insanely tricky to deal with, as most of his new buffs allow him to essentially get away with murder. The sheer number of moves and stance transitions he has are already overwhelming for anyone not familiar with his game, but even intermediate level players struggle to counter the blend of horrors he dishes out at will. Learning all of the ins and outs of the matchup can take hundreds of hours of labbing, as there is no one set counterplay strategy against Hwoarang. You need to beat the player, not the character. Recognizing your opponent's patterns, and capitalizing on every little mistake they make is key to winning against a Hwoarang player. (or just, yknow, cross your fingers and wait for the next patch)
Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.
What makes Hwoarang especially dangerous is that he has great tools for basically any situation. His b3 is of the best whiff punishers in the game, but he also has a generic df2 AND an orbital to launch you from range. His RFF df3 is one of the most abusable moves in Tekken, since it has so many characteristics you can barely even say it with one breath: it's a fast, long range, homing, wallsplatting, plus on block heat engager, that crushes lows and allows him to instantly close the gap and start pressuring you with even more plus frames. Therefore - while learning to punish him on a move-by-move basis is useful - the simple block-and-punish method won't work against him in a real match, because he's almost always plus, and his moves from stance have very quick whiff recovery. The secret to beating Hwoarang lies in adapting to your opponents playstyle and looking for gaps in his offense you can exploit.
Up close and personal
Unless your opponent is brainlessly mashing, they will likely show patterns in the way they attack. Most Hwoarangs will use his d3,4 into Flamingo to initiate offense, which is a low-high string with very poor tracking (except in the case mentioned later), meaning if you got a hang of the way your opponent attacks, ducking/sidestepping and immediately punishing this move is a good way to make them second guess themselves. Be very quick with your punish, as Hwoarang has a both a fast powercrush and a homing option after d3,4.
He has two very dangerous options from Right Flamingo Stance:
His best mid is RFS4,3 which is fast, +4 on block, wallsplats, steals your girl, blabla you know the deal.
He also has RFS.f4, his infamous flappy kicks that have an 8 frame startup and can be confirmed into an instant tornado launch.
Generally the best way to deal with these is to block, then immediately step to the right and block whatever comes next. If your opponent is of the mashing type, you could try jab checking him to shut down his offense. If he does his launcher from flamingo, blocking it gives you 14 whole frames, so be sure to always punish it. In case he finishes his flappy kick string, ducking it grants you a nice WS launch punish, but be careful if he doesn't, since he'll still be in RFS.
An important thing to note is that due to him being +4 after RFS4,3, his normally very steppable d3,4 will track you to either side if you try stepping it. Because of this, and the fact that most of his other lows are risky to block and punish, it's generally advisable to low parry his low options whenever you get the chance. Doing this might also force your opponent to think twice about rushing you down.
Key Moves to Punish
Move
Punish
Purpose
b3
Block and launch
Mid launcher with very good range, -19 on block.
df3,4
SSR the second hit OR i14 punish
Delayable powercrushing mid that knocks down.
RFS.f4,4
Duck and launch
Very fast startup, launches on hit, and only -6 on block.
RFF3~4
Duck and punish OR Throw
Homing high powercrush that wallsplats and recovers ridiculously quickly. Ducking and launching is possible but very risky, your safest bet is a throw since it becomes unbreakable.
RFS.d4,3,4
Block and launch
His low sweep from RFS that becomes even more devastating in heat. Block the first hit and launch him.
d3,4
Low parry OR Duck and punish OR SSR and punish
One of his most commonly used pressure tools, in neutral it's an easy punish, but from stance it could be tricky to deal with.
Punishment
-15 or more standing
NameThe name of the move in the English localization.Most often directly from the in-game movelist, but can also be a community name.
AltOther inputs that also perform this move, written in notation.
NumThe move number as it appears on the full move list of the given character in the game.
InputThe input to perform the move, written in notation. This is often used as the move's name.For strings, the input of the previous moves in the string is shown but washed out.
Hit levelThe hit level of the move.Capital letters mean it hits grounded.For strings, the hit level of the previous moves in the string is shown but washed out.
DamageHow much damage the move does without any modifiers.For strings, the damage of the previous moves in the string is shown but washed out.
RangeThe maximum range recorded of the move hitting Lars on-axis. (For Tekken 7, it's vs Heihachi.) Assume an error of about ±0.03.For strings, this is the range of the whole string.This measurement shouldn't on its own be used to compare characters: larger characters get more "range" by this measure, but their opponents do too.
Left TrackingThe tracking score to the attacker's left.Roughly speaking, when up close, if the defender sidesteps or sidewalks right for no more than this many frames, the move still connects.
Right TrackingThe tracking score to the attacker's right.Roughly speaking, when up close, if the defender sidesteps or sidewalks left for no more than this many frames, the move still connects.
BlockThe frame advantage on block.Blank if the move can't be blocked (e.g., an unblockable or an aerial attack).For breakable throws, this is the frame advantage when the throw is broken.
HitThe frame advantage on hit.Blank if the move is not an attack, e.g. is a stance transition only.For throws, this is the frame advantage after the throw.
CHThe frame advantage on counter hit.Blank if this is the same as on normal hit, i.e. there is no special behavior on counter hit.
StartupThe active frames of the attack. The "i" stands for "impact", i.e. impact frame.If there is more than one hit, a comma indicates that frame 1 is now the frame after the last active frame of the previous hit.For strings, therefore, this usually has a leading comma.
RecoveryThe total number of frames, the recovery frames, and what stance the move recovers in, if any.The "t" stands for total and "r" for recovery. If no stance is listed, the move recovers in the default, standing position.For strings, the total frame count is from the start of the string with no delays.
NotesAnything that doesn't fit elsewhere.Many common move properties, such as whether a string can be delayed, go here.See Movelist#Notes for standard wording of common properties.
NameThe name of the move in the English localization.Most often directly from the in-game movelist, but can also be a community name.
AltOther inputs that also perform this move, written in notation.
NumThe move number as it appears on the full move list of the given character in the game.
InputThe input to perform the move, written in notation. This is often used as the move's name.For strings, the input of the previous moves in the string is shown but washed out.
Hit levelThe hit level of the move.Capital letters mean it hits grounded.For strings, the hit level of the previous moves in the string is shown but washed out.
DamageHow much damage the move does without any modifiers.For strings, the damage of the previous moves in the string is shown but washed out.
RangeThe maximum range recorded of the move hitting Lars on-axis. (For Tekken 7, it's vs Heihachi.) Assume an error of about ±0.03.For strings, this is the range of the whole string.This measurement shouldn't on its own be used to compare characters: larger characters get more "range" by this measure, but their opponents do too.
Left TrackingThe tracking score to the attacker's left.Roughly speaking, when up close, if the defender sidesteps or sidewalks right for no more than this many frames, the move still connects.
Right TrackingThe tracking score to the attacker's right.Roughly speaking, when up close, if the defender sidesteps or sidewalks left for no more than this many frames, the move still connects.
BlockThe frame advantage on block.Blank if the move can't be blocked (e.g., an unblockable or an aerial attack).For breakable throws, this is the frame advantage when the throw is broken.
HitThe frame advantage on hit.Blank if the move is not an attack, e.g. is a stance transition only.For throws, this is the frame advantage after the throw.
CHThe frame advantage on counter hit.Blank if this is the same as on normal hit, i.e. there is no special behavior on counter hit.
StartupThe active frames of the attack. The "i" stands for "impact", i.e. impact frame.If there is more than one hit, a comma indicates that frame 1 is now the frame after the last active frame of the previous hit.For strings, therefore, this usually has a leading comma.
RecoveryThe total number of frames, the recovery frames, and what stance the move recovers in, if any.The "t" stands for total and "r" for recovery. If no stance is listed, the move recovers in the default, standing position.For strings, the total frame count is from the start of the string with no delays.
NotesAnything that doesn't fit elsewhere.Many common move properties, such as whether a string can be delayed, go here.See Movelist#Notes for standard wording of common properties.
NameThe name of the move in the English localization.Most often directly from the in-game movelist, but can also be a community name.
AltOther inputs that also perform this move, written in notation.
NumThe move number as it appears on the full move list of the given character in the game.
InputThe input to perform the move, written in notation. This is often used as the move's name.For strings, the input of the previous moves in the string is shown but washed out.
Hit levelThe hit level of the move.Capital letters mean it hits grounded.For strings, the hit level of the previous moves in the string is shown but washed out.
DamageHow much damage the move does without any modifiers.For strings, the damage of the previous moves in the string is shown but washed out.
RangeThe maximum range recorded of the move hitting Lars on-axis. (For Tekken 7, it's vs Heihachi.) Assume an error of about ±0.03.For strings, this is the range of the whole string.This measurement shouldn't on its own be used to compare characters: larger characters get more "range" by this measure, but their opponents do too.
Left TrackingThe tracking score to the attacker's left.Roughly speaking, when up close, if the defender sidesteps or sidewalks right for no more than this many frames, the move still connects.
Right TrackingThe tracking score to the attacker's right.Roughly speaking, when up close, if the defender sidesteps or sidewalks left for no more than this many frames, the move still connects.
BlockThe frame advantage on block.Blank if the move can't be blocked (e.g., an unblockable or an aerial attack).For breakable throws, this is the frame advantage when the throw is broken.
HitThe frame advantage on hit.Blank if the move is not an attack, e.g. is a stance transition only.For throws, this is the frame advantage after the throw.
CHThe frame advantage on counter hit.Blank if this is the same as on normal hit, i.e. there is no special behavior on counter hit.
StartupThe active frames of the attack. The "i" stands for "impact", i.e. impact frame.If there is more than one hit, a comma indicates that frame 1 is now the frame after the last active frame of the previous hit.For strings, therefore, this usually has a leading comma.
RecoveryThe total number of frames, the recovery frames, and what stance the move recovers in, if any.The "t" stands for total and "r" for recovery. If no stance is listed, the move recovers in the default, standing position.For strings, the total frame count is from the start of the string with no delays.
NotesAnything that doesn't fit elsewhere.Many common move properties, such as whether a string can be delayed, go here.See Movelist#Notes for standard wording of common properties.
